Prefab Home - pros and cons

mylittlepony

I was driving along and notice two prefabs houses.

I know of prefabs for schools or building sites.
Didnt know they could be use as a home.

Im assuming they would be cheaper than building a house.
Wonder what are the pros and cons of a prefab house.

Anyone have one?
Where can I find more info on them i search the internet and havent found what Im looking.
But I like the look of this prefab house - the i-house. pity its in the USA:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/how_your_house_works/4299495.html

Juantorena

If you like the i-House you may enjoy this...http://www.fabprefab.com/fabfiles/fablisthome.htm

I'm a big fan of off-site or prefabricated construction for houses. I'm constantly at the local timberframe company who did the frame for my house to do more and more in their factory i.e. attaching external cladding/renders, installing windows, fitting socket/light fittings, internal slabbing...

We're still building houses as almost artistic or craft-like endevours. If it was the car industry we'd be building Morgans...

Pro's/Cons? Well, there should be better quality control, therefore better/more predictable energy efficiency. In high labour rate environments there should be a cost saving.

On the other hand, there's less scope for changing minds. Or possibly even changing off-the-shelf designs that companies might have. Now a days, with the depressed market, cost could be against them also.

Seems to me..the way to go!

mylittlepony

Is there a prefab company in Ireland?

Mellor

mylittlepony wrote: »

Is there a prefab company in Ireland?

There was a prefab timber frame company that pulled out a few years ago. They would of bee nhigher spec houses, and not like in the OP.

There are still pre-fab timber frame houses in ireland. and again, they wouldn't be like the OP.


The house in the OP would have difficultly getting planning in most of the country. Only suitable site in Dublin could pull it off imo. it reminds me of the Patera building system designed my Michael Hopkins in the 1980s, google "Hopkins House"

mfceiling

I know of a company in tyrone making pre-fab houses.
I did 4 school builds last year and it was all with their pre-fab buildings but they make pre-fab houses also.
They have supplied a lot of affordable housing to certain parts of england.
PM me if you would like their name.

justflow1983

A good number of timber frame companies do all of their work off site and then simply assemble the pieces on site. It is almost always better in that the parts have been constructed in a dry and controlled environment with the right tooling and rigging. It doesn't have to be a pre-fab design to be made this way, any design can be made in a factory and brought to site.

Pre-fab timber frame is almost always of higher quality and better craftsmanship that site built. The down side is that once the frame is ordered, you can't really make many design changes to the actual building fabric.